Hey All

Geez, its been windy! Saturday morning we escaped the building northerly around the southern end of Slipper. After a hard morning north of Tairua we found heaps of gannets diving bombing a lot of fish pushed hard into the shallows - like 3m of water!!!.   We fished the fringe of the reef, hoping to pick up some kahawai or the odd kingi, but instead of grey shadows chasing softbaits to the boat it was big flashes of red!

The water was crystal clear and we could see the fish taking right beside the boat in 3-4m of water!! Amazing!

Brothers John and Paul Ashely got into some brotherly rivalry and were netting some nice 5 pound snapper on GULP lime tigers.

Paul kicked things into gear


John followed


But Paul nailed the fish of the day slowly retreiving a Nuc chook in pogy shape. A nice snap of 14 pound, hooked in 5m of water, we had the stabi full tit in reverse following it through the reef and around the bommies....

That last fish is a ripper Epic...!  Must have been amazing seeing hits in the clear water - choice..!

good fish outta that depth epic sounds like a nice battle too

Awesome Carl 

Thanks for a great day on the water Carl - sure was an 'Epic' Adventure. 

Nice one epic! slipper always abit thin, but when she fires lookout! good to see. Keep up the good work.

Nice one epic. Snaps are turbo charged on Sp gear in the shallows. Must have been awesome watching them too. The one in that 2nd photo has wicked bands/stripes

IMHO an adult snapper with stripes is highly stressed.  If you gut hook a snapper it will often have these stripes.  The fish in the photo is not gut hooked, so maybe it's just a scaredy-fish and reacts more to the inconvenience of being caught than others.  I saw something from an underwater camera survey in the Hauraki Gulf at night.  The fish were all sleeping/resting near the bottom, and they all had these pronounced stripes.  It may help the snap to look fierce when it is vulnerable.  It could also help with camouflage in a weedy area.